After months of contemplation, Andrew Wiggins, the most hyped high school senior since LeBron James, selected a college sometime on Sunday night. But keeping with the amazingly secretive nature of this process, the Huntington Prep forward didn’t even tell his parents.
His father, Mitchell, was in Fort Lauderdale with some former pro basketball teammates, and Andrew worried that if he told him, the decision he’d so carefully guarded would escape into social media’s ether.
So on Monday night, Mitchell and Marita Wiggins arrived at a hotel here knowing that their son had selected a college, yet still unsure which one. Wiggins drove to the hotel, entered his parents’ room and flashed a wide smile.
“I know where I want to go,” he said. “Guess!”
But his parents didn’t want to guess. Mitchell Wiggins isn’t a good guesser. Marita Wiggins didn’t want to pick the wrong school. Then, finally, emphatically, Andrew Wiggins revealed that he was headed to Kansas.
On Tuesday, he picked up breakfast for his friends at Tudor’s Biscuit World and went to St. Joseph’s Central High School for the official announcement. Around 11:30 a.m., he and his parents found a quiet moment together and prayed. And at 12:09 p.m. he shared his plans more publicly, in front of classmates, family and friends. The relief was palpable.
“It’s a big weight off my shoulders,” Wiggins said afterward. “All the schools were good, but Kansas was where my heart was at.”